U.S.-China Military Relations: From War in Korea to the South China Sea

A year after Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China in October 1949, the U.S. was ostensibly at war with the Communist behemoth on the Korean peninsula. Over the next 70 years, the relationship of these two great powers has moved from enemy to near-ally to strategic competitor.

Geoff Babb, a military historian at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, examines the twists and turns of this important and complex relationship and assesses where we are today. Again, Korean tensions are part of the backdrop.